Soccer has become one of the most popular sports in the United States among children of all ages. It is known in the prior art to provide soccer training assemblies to supplement the formal training children receive in school or otherwise. Such devices generally include kickable balls attached to tether. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,209 to Carey which includes a captive soccer ball attached to a belt by a multi-component tether. In another device, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,117 to Reichert the tether is attached to a torso-mounted harness. U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,241 to Cortes Garcia disclosed yet another similar type of training device wherein an end of the tether cord is held by the user after the tether is passed through a waist belt. Other devices of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,147,353, 4,278,257 and 4,576,379.
While the above-identified training devices are generally suitable for their intended purpose, they are often difficult to use by a young child. Such devices are often unnecessarily complex and thus expensive to manufacture and difficult to maintain. It would therefore be desirable to provide an improved training apparatus for use by children which overcomes these and other problems associated with the prior art.